today the european court of human rights condemned russia for putting a whistle blower's life in danger while he was in police custody every judge on the court including the russian one in agreement that while the mere putin state was in the wrong tonight we ask will this ruling change anything is anyone listening in the world that's run by vladimir putin i'm burnt off in berlin this is the day. you led subsequent visits when he was completely illegal to put him in prison you're fit and that was no evidence that just a fund keeping him back the so long that he will be what they moved him from cell to salary. as soon as he started to complain about the conditions that they immediately moved him to a cell with even worse conditions. with mr magnitsky died in prison it's

a tragedy and we regret it but so what the americans don't have people is dying in their presence. which what happened to my son if you was comforting him why did he done it. and why didn't they treat him. also coming up he is a green politician and he could become germany's next chancellor tonight we ask him about how he plans to win and has he found the new center of german politics your visits nearly certainly hold positions of the policies used to hold the forests and that have become thought of germany's d.n.a. like the fact that a social market economy is there to serve the people and that we don't want to die hard capitalism and that europe has to be the core aim of german foreign policy. our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and all around the world to welcome what we begin the day with europe's judicial fist and

a slug in the face or russian president. tamir putin today the european court of human rights condemned to russia for how we treated the late russian corruption whistleblower sergei magnitsky minsky died in police custody in 2009 the court said that russia's decision to deny him medical care while in custody put magnitsky his life in danger he was arrested for alleged tax evasion after he exposed widespread tax fraud which implicated russian officials today the court ruled that russian authorities had had reasonable grounds to suspect magnitsky of being involved in tax evasion but it added authorities violated numerous rights when they deny and it's medical assistance behind bars his death led to the u.s. congress passing the magnitsky act which allows the government to freeze assets and to ban visas of human rights violators around the world. well will a european court ruling change anything about vladimir putin's russia let me pull

in bill bradley sergey magnitsky was a friend for him and he was also his lawyer the lawyer who uncovered how russia was stealing money from investors since magnitsky is death brother has led a campaign to stop russian fraud he lobbied the u.s. congress to pass the magnitsky act he joins me tonight from london but it's good to see you again on the show russia has ignored all the rulings by the european court of human rights which i'm sure you are aware of do you expect it to treat today's ruling any differently. well the ruling is is significant most significant in the words that are in the ruling as opposed to what the consequences are the words in the ruling are very explicit they say that russia effectively murdered sergei magnitsky after torturing him and get it completely not giving him a fair trial and doing all sorts of other illegal things that's what the ruling

says and and the reason why this is so important is not for the 34000 euro judgment that the family gets that's that's effectively de minimus and beside the point what's significant about this is that vladimir putin has hated the magnitsky act the the piece of legislation named after sergei magnitsky which freezes assets and bans visa visas he's hated it since it was 1st passed and he's been trying to spread misinformation and lies about sergei magnitsky in order to try to get it repealed and by having this judgement from a unanimous group of international judges it completely ruins the russian government's propaganda campaign you successfully lobbied the u.s. congress to pass the back in 2012 and united spoke earlier this year when you were here in berlin lobbying german lawmakers to do the same how are things looking in

your efforts to get the european union and germany to get on board. well so if at the end of last year the dutch government proposed and magnitsky act to all the other members of the european union after their proposal was put 1st put out there the german government the french government various scan and even governments and other governments signed on and supported there however were several governments that don't support it hungary which is run by viktor orban who is a friend of putin apparently italy doesn't support it because of this or sell vini another friend of putin and so to the extent that these other e.u. member states don't support it they've had to rely on some arguments not to have it and some of the arguments they rely on are the russian propaganda which have effectively been rubbished as of today by the european court for human rights and

so i believe that the to to the extent that there is dissent within europe some of that dissent and perhaps all of it will fall by the wayside as a result of this judgment but bill that's quite a statement you're making there you're saying that russian propaganda coming from the kremlin has been so strong that it has convinced european lawmakers not to sue so i know for this magnitsky act and you're saying that the ruling by the court today is going to have so much impact that it's going to change that do you really believe that a ruling by the european court of human rights is going to change the way that lawmakers are thinking. well so it's not so much lawmakers are thinking this these are officials in different governments and so what we have is most of the governments of the european union are in favor of the magnitsky act the ones that are opposing it have to have good reason to oppose it and to the extent that they're using fallacious arguments they can no longer use them because whether

hungary is. good bad or indifferent they have to respect the european court of human rights this is not this is not an african country or a country like kazakstan or something like that this is hungry which is a sort of proper member of the european union and so i do believe that that a judgment for the european court of human rights stating the facts as it has should have a very significant impact on our campaign going forward we know that you've been investigating what happened to the money the disappeared when your investment fund was raided by the russians there has been a lot of speculation that some of that money actually landed in the coffers or the hands of u.s. president donald trump can you confirm tonight did that happen. i can say that based on all the evidence we have none of it went to donald trump however i can say that based on the evidence we have some of it went to vladimir

putin and i can say that based on an exposure an exposé in the panama papers that came out which showed that a man named surrogate role doogan who's a famous cellist and a very close friend of lattimer putin and received some of the money and most people know sort of a role do going to be nominee and so we can we can effectively say that vladimir putin was a beneficiary of the crime that surrogate magnitsky exposed and was killed over and that's why one of the reasons why vladimir putin is so worried about the magnitsky act because it applies to him personally and that's one of the reasons why he's made it such a high priority to repeal the magnitsky act and is it through talking about stolen money tax evasion to me ask you something about today's court decision the court said that russian authorities had reasonable grounds to suspect that sergei magnitsky was a tax evader and they condemned the circumstances of the police custody but not the custody in itself what do you say to that. well so i what i would

say is that is a technical decision which can easily be overturned based on new evidence the problem is that the way the european court for human rights works is that we submitted all the evidence for the decision in 2012 and we weren't allowed to submit any more evidence but since 2012 we've we've amassed a mountain of absolutely definitive evidence showing that sergei magnitsky had nothing to do with tax evasion that the reason he was arrested was in retaliation for his whistle blowing but we couldn't put that evidence into the court based on their own technical rules and so it's absolutely clear to anyone who knows this case that survey magnitsky was arrested in retaliation for accusing police officers of committing this crime and in this decision saying that it was admissible for him to be arrested is based on. be unable to submit that evidence. when he is

tonight's to talk about that ruling coming from the european court of human rights today bill always good to see you would be shit your time tonight thank you. well it is being called a watershed moment in america's opioid crisis a court in the state of oklahoma has ordered the drug maker johnson and johnson to pay more than half a $1000000000.00 for its role in an ongoing opioid epidemic that's already claimed thousands of lives the judge says that johnson and johnson was motivated by greed and johnson and johnson maintains everything that it did was legal the oklahoma case is the 1st of its kind to go on trial it could be a model for litigation in other states. he's probably needed box's son austin is one of 6000 oklahomans believed to have died from an opioid overdose since the start of the millennium a promising american footballer he died in his prime. austin was

living a nightmare the nightmare at prescription drug abuse now the 1st of thousands of lawsuits aimed at holding manufacturers and distributors to account has made it through trial cleveland county district judge that borkman a set prosecutors have proven johnson and johnson to create a public nuisance that would take decades to repair. it all today judge walker has affirmed our position that johnson and johnson motivated by greed and avarice is responsible for the opioid epidemic. johnson and johnson will finally be held accountable for thousands of deaths in a kitchen caused by their activities. the company was accused of flooding the market with painkillers and deceptively marketing them denies wrongdoing saying its sales claims were backed by science it plans to appeal against the oklahoma court's

decision. we have sympathy for all who suffer from substance abuse. but johnson and johnson. did not cause the opioid abuse crisis here in oklahoma. or anywhere in this country. so many more claimants disagree with the company with 2000 plus he's getting caught in ohio later this year. but my next guest tonight is the journalist and author sampson young as he wrote the hughley praised 2015 book dreamland the true tale of america's opiate of a democrat it's a nonfiction account of the drug marketing legal and illegal that led to the current addiction to pain killing pills that is blood in the united states sam welcome to the show i want to start of if i can by getting your reaction to today's

ruling coming out of oklahoma. well i'm it's there was you know the 1st of its kind and so course where we're all paying attention to it what it's for both for other cases that are going to come down the pike and are many as your report said it's hard it's hard to tell it's hard to tell too if this kind of award even though it's much less than the state of oklahoma is looking for is going to be financially possible given the number of plaintiffs. for counties and native tribes and cities and states all across the country who are lining up to to sue major drug drug manufacturers and distributors and will see him and if this this this this will award stands because they will kill it but it's a major step up there's no doubt about it it's one that everyone is looking through to see how the courts would begin to to try to apportion blame and in this disaster

that's gone on now for 20 years in our country there are other wall suits as well and are these lawsuits are they changing anything in the united states. oh the mere fact i think that they are happening is representative of a change when i was writing dreamland there were 3 lawsuits ok when the book came out after the book came out you began to see more and more and more lawsuits and now we're up to 2000 so the mere fact that and the thing that there is the thing about these lawsuits is that they they are manifestation of a basic nature one of the new central points of this epidemic where this is the center one of the central points of this up and demick is that this is a problem that has created private profits profits are going to. drug manufacturers and drug distributors pharmaceutical industry and socialized costs so the profits are or local or private the costs are borne by by everybody primarily i

would say by counties in america the counties fund jails courts corners offices foster children agencies county hospitals libraries all of those agencies have been buckling under this under the strain of trying to support this so so these lawsuits are are a kind of a visible manifestation of the essential nature of this epidemic which is that this is a private the profits are private and the costs are socialized yet it's interesting because in oklahoma the attorneys wanted $17000000000.00 from johnson and johnson defined rehab clinics for addicted patients for example the judge saying that that is not a drug makers responsibility and people around the world looking at this story going to be asking will whose responsibility in the united states isn't that. it's a good question on much or how to parse that that issue on certainly every county in america is seeing its drug treatment which is already slim overwhelmed

most of the jails are are over when the jails have become almost a shock to treatment centers that's where a lot about extend up and so exactly how to parse this out i think one of the things this these next batch of lawsuits may try to have to address is exactly how this money gets used that will be whatever how so that will be a major question before counties before companies before states for some time to come because all across this country you're seeing a lot of public entities just struggling mightily with the cost of the something you know looking at a comparison between europe and the us here in germany reveals of any prescription require a new visit with your doctor and that's not the case in the u.s. advertisements for prescription drugs is not allowed on television here and it is in the united states i mean the commercialization of medicine in the u.s.

is dramatic our lawmakers and doctors in the u.s. are they looking to europe for guidance into why the opioid crisis has not happened here and why it's happened in the u.s. . i was there to some degree that's that's true i would say that by and large we became a culture that for which a pill was the solution to most of our ills and pain was certainly at the top among them and i would say that there isn't an attitude in the united states and maybe it exists to some degree in europe but i'm quite sure probably not to the extent it does air that we are ought to be allowed a life free of pain and i think this attitude was particularly robust in the past years maybe people are coming to a different idea right now but but but there was this attitude that we should be allowed in title to life free of pain and the doctors were the ones who are going to give us that and that also that we didn't have to be accountable for our own wellness and doctors had a pill these pills were deemed virtually non addictive even though they're

narcotics somehow we got that that that message we bought into that mess that doctors began to prescribe this stuff as if we were just like aspirin almost and i think overall though there was there are many factors that move into this there are pharmacy there's pharmaceutical culpability in this there's no doubt and doctors as well but i think also this is a story that's really also it in part about about americans and how we as a culture began to believe that we didn't have to be accountable for well on wellness what we ate and drank how much exercise we got and that we get wellness from from a pill yeah yeah the things you said i mean it's disturbing and hopefully hopefully these lawsuits can help to bring a change sam you know as a journalist and author of dream land the true tale of america's opiate of the demick with his analysis of that court decision out of oklahoma today sam thank you we appreciate your time tonight. well here in

germany voters in 2 states will go to the polls this coming weekend to elect a new parliament so the results have the potential to give populace in the country and across europe one of the biggest boosts ever and here's what the polling is telling us right now is most likely it's expected that the far right alternative for germany could emerge as the strongest political party in one or both of the 2 states this weekend but that is only half of the story the environmentalist green party could also become a big winner the greens are already the 2nd largest party nationally now they've traditionally had little support in the east of the country but in the state of brandenburg which is in eastern germany they now look set to double their share of the vote compared to the last regional elections back in 2014 it's a similar story if you go down south to neighboring saxony where the latest polls indicate that the greens share of the vote will increased to double digits compared to just 5.7 percent in the last election those numbers could transform the greens

in eastern germany from a fringe party to a force to be reckoned with green momentum as they're calling it the co-leader of the greens here in germany is even being talked about as a possible future german chancellor his name is robert havoc the w.'s chief political editor macculloch of her caught up with him on the campaign trail. this man cycling through small town saxony could well be on his way to succeed anglo-american all as germany's next chancellor in recent months harvick has taken his green party to new heights in the opinion polls they are expected to double their share of the vote in next sunday's regional elections in the eastern states of brandenburg and saxony a development that raises big questions about bigger ambitions father my mother walking through the countryside here with the future chancellor of germany. most of all you know walking next to a party leader who's campaigning in saxony in brandenburg together with his

colleagues at the beginning of the year everyone said sure you have a good opinion poll which you will get all crushed in brandenburg and sectioning and then the opposition will happen as germany's big 10 parties lose support the greens have been going mainstream. they are the greens the new center force of jump politics. your visits nearly certainly hold positions other parties used to hold before that have become part of germany's d.n.a. like the fact that a social market economy is there to serve the people and that we don't want to die hard capitalism europe has to be the core aim of german foreign policy. the former rebel greens at ease with becoming establishment so again ready for chancellor. it's a fair question as we've been around the 20 percent mark for a while now but it's too early for that opposition. in saxony the greens try to

prove they are unafraid of the right wing populism that is dividing the country further north they're aiming even higher. whereas this side of the road here in saxony the greens are unlikely to significantly change the political game just across the road in the neighboring state of brandenburg the greens are well on the way into regional government here they have been able to score with voters in the race to offer alternatives to the far right if tea party the tightly contested race between those pushing for change and those promising the return to good old days seize the greens also an anonymous a trained doctor up against the f.t. parties and yes kind of gets an army veteran because we cannot afford to fail on our climate targets time and time again we finally need to get serious about meeting the 1.5 degree target of the paris accord we only have a couple of years left to do that. a liberal leaning crowd feels the a.f.d.

protest too much overt rhetoric on migration. we have to openly address the problems people have and that's what the f.d.a. is about we don't start fears. of the high hopes of the greens prove that the political battle in eastern germany is not simply about the rise of the far right it's also about who might replace uncle americal as her political era draws to a close. you know sports can seem very political even when it's not supposed to be just the members of one of saxon his local football clubs. leipsic is campaigning using its own banners calling for tolerance and harmony and its stadiums and in society now the club says it is not endorsing any party or candidate but its message is designed to stay with specially on election day.

party election posters have been filling up the streets in saxony for weeks the far right f.t. are expected to do well in sunday's election. but some of the plot cards look slightly out of place they're not from a political party but from blues legal football club. posters featuring the coach and star players have been plastered around lights beyond proudly declaring the club's drive for diversity and openness it's nothing to do with party politics they say these are just basic principles. and it's not about party politics it's about the values that we stand for in society respect tolerance openness diversity with proudly in favor of an open society we've got 40 nationalities playing in our team players leave diversity we live it as a club the decision to take a stand is a recent development on the street as on social media not everyone has got the message. it's a bit confusing i wasn't sure what it was about i thought it was about football

though the club is keen to avoid endorsing any party the timing is no coincidence everyone has something to say had an election why shouldn't be there are more than $300.00 of the posters hanging across the state but it's at the polling booth and not the stadium that sex in these near future will be determined. the day is almost done the conversation continues online you'll find us on twitter either at u.w. news or you can follow me of brant goff t.v. don't forget to use our hash tag the day and remember whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another day we'll see you then everybody

ready. all crazy business. again. projects can out and the economy while well considered ones to end in tears came into a look at some transformational moments a make history of economic activity. made in germany in 60 minutes.

you're going to an official estimates more than 1200000 venezuelans live in colombia needy and illegally. nobody at all i'd return to. to visit friends is that i don't think i'd ever go back there to live you know what i live there again i don't know so i'm not sure. bearing witness global news that matters. made for mines. as so as europe you're painting is in crisis. if it's to have a future you will meet champions young champions. for activists for the country. they are fighting for the dream.

do they stand a chance. and they save the european idea. oh my god i'm here to stand up for european values and contribute to something important that she of. the future of europe starts september 2nd d. w. . corporate greed are over human lives u.s. pharmaceuticals john johnson and johnson is found guilty for helping fuel america's opiate crisis what does the ruling mean for the future of big pharma in the u.s. also coming up church charities are working overtime in the u.k. looking after people who cannot afford to buy food and clothes one of the richest countries in the planet's. i'm chris culliver welcome to the program it's

a landmark ruling in.